By Jaime Hernandez posted on PCGS

Some of the most beautiful coins in numismatics today are also some of the most intriguing. A simple look at any of the breathtaking 1964 SMS coins reveals their special numismatic status. The special finish of 1964 SMS coins is characterized by a nice, smooth, satin-like appearance. The fields are usually well struck, very clean and tend to come without any major nicks or scratches. The edges for most 1964 SMS coins also tend to be square and sharp. The bust and legends are usually highly detailed and sharp on most examples, especially when compared to business strike coins. The surfaces are non-reflective compared to proof coins of the era, yet are not the same finish as regular-issue coins for the same year.

The U.S. Mint definitely had a rough year in 1964. That was the year they introduced the Kennedy half dollar series both in MS and Proofs, including hundreds of thousands of 1964-D Peace dollars which were later melted! Most significantly, in 1964 all production of 90% silver coinage was being discontinued because of the rising price of silver. The only coins containing silver would be the Kennedy half dollars dated 1965 to 1970, but even those coins only contained 40% silver.

During this time the Mint was also making plans to produce Special Mint Sets from the years 1965 to 1967. These coins were introduced in hopes of eliminating coin shortage within the nation’s monetary system. Consequently, in order to deter the public from hoarding coins, the Mint produced all 1965 to 1967 Special Mint Set coins without any mintmarks. The Special Mint Sets dated 1965 to 1967 were produced instead of regular mint or proof sets for those three years.

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Something has happened to our money. And no, not just that the American peso has dropped historically against the euro, making trips to France and Italy half-again more costly than they used to be.

Rather, our $5, $10 and $20 bills and our coins have suffered a severe drop in quality when considered as art.

Yes, money is art, whether it’s the engraving that makes up the bills or the bas-relief sculpture on our coins. There are long histories in both as art mediums, from the intricate lozenge-and-dot portraits of the 17th and 18th centuries and the commemorative medallions struck from the Renaissance on.

But craftsmanship at the mint and at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing has declined precipitously, leaving us with wallets full of bad art. This wouldn’t be so noticeable if the older coins and bills hadn’t been so beautifully made.

“When I compare our money with European money, ours has fallen quite flat in design and execution,” says Dan Mayer, printmaker for Pyracantha Press at Arizona State University.

Look at an old bill, before the anti-counterfeiting “improvements” of the 21st century. Not only are the portraits more lifelike - there’s a personality behind the eyes in Grant’s picture on the $50 bill - the designs also are fuller, more detailed and graceful, full of trailing acanthus and olive leaves.

The vegetative growth and architectural motifs that used to grace our bills announced our national fecundity. We were a waxing moon, a rising tide. The scrollwork and border ornament recalled the inventive bustle of the Renaissance. Read Full Arizona Republic Article

MADRID, Spain: Spain laid formal claim Thursday to a shipwreck that yielded US$500 million (€324 million) in treasure, saying it has proof the vessel is Spanish and demanding that a U.S. deep-sea exploration firm that recovered the booty give it all back.

Culture Ministry officials said the 19th-century shipwreck at the heart of a year-old dispute with Odyssey Marine Exploration is the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes — a Spanish warship sunk by the British navy southwest of Portugal in 1804 with more than 200 people on board.

The Spanish government filed evidence Thursday backing up its claim with a U.S. federal judge hearing the case in Tampa, Florida, where Odyssey is based.
Washington-based lawyer James Goold, who represents the Spanish government in the case, said U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Pizzo would now convene the two parties to review the case before deciding who gets to keep the treasure.

“It is the property of the Spanish navy, government and people, and we want it all back,” said Admiral Teodoro de Leste Contreras, who runs a naval museum owned by the ministry.

Goold said at a news conference in Madrid that he expected Odyssey would keep “not a penny” of the salvage.

Spain argues the entire treasure should be returned because naval vessels never cease to be the property of the nation that flagged them, regardless of where they lay, under the principle of sovereign immunity, Goold said.

“Spain has not abandoned or otherwise relinquished in any way its ownership of Mercedes,” Spain argued in Thursday’s court filing.

Odyssey said it would issue a statement after reviewing Spain’s claim and the file provided Thursday to the U.S. court. But company officials has said in the past they believed the court would award them most of the treasure, as they had found it. (more…)

First, the U.S. Mint nixed “Taxation Without Representation” as the slogan for the D.C. quarter. Now, the Mint has narrowed the choices for the design of the coin’s reverse to three figures from the city’s history: Benjamin Banneker, Duke Ellington and Frederick Douglass.

Each has his merits, of course, but this is a weak field. The problem is not any lack of achievement on the part of the candidates. No, it’s the tenuousness of their connections to the District, which are important but way too brief (Banneker); an accident of birth that had little meaning in his ultimate accomplishments (Ellington); and almost irrelevant to his greatness (Douglass).

Just as almost every state in the union decided that no one person captured the essence of its history and identity, the District should have chosen an inanimate symbol to put on the coin, which so many people fought so hard to get added to the Mint’s state quarters program. (The feds had zero interest in including Washington in the program. The District was added only at the last minute, and then was lumped, insultingly, into the same category as American Samoa, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands. I kid you not.)

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